A quick glance at the title revealed, “The Boys of ’54” and as a baseball fan, I immediately thought it pertained to the 1954 Cleveland Indians, a team that advanced to the World Series with 111 wins, the most ever regular-season wins in American League history. Much to my surprise and delight, it was not a baseball book, but a chronology of the Lock Haven High School Class of 1954’s undefeated/untied football team during the 1953 football season.

The author, Cal Golumbic (a 1954 Lock Haven High School graduate) possesses impeccable credentials — a 30-year attorney for large a Washington, D.C., law firm, on the editorial staff for Country Living Magazine, a post-retirement lecturer at the Liberal Arts College at Penn State University, and self-admittedly, a very proud native of Lock Haven and the mountains of the Susquehanna River Valley.

Golumbic states in the foreword of the book that the reader might consider the contents likely more mythical than anything else, Webster’s dictionary defining a myth as a popular belief that has grown up around something or someone. Furthermore, he suggests that, “from the vantage point of 70 years later, the events in the book might not have occurred exactly as described, but the reader must not be mistaken, what happened each week on the LHHS football field in the fall of 1953 became legendary at the time, and after time, discussion and disbelief, perhaps mythical in nature.”

Hence, the title of the book: “The Boys of ’54, a Myth.”

PHOTO PROVIDED LHHS head coach Nelson Hoffman, middle, and assistant coaches Tom Galitski, left, and Joe Davis, right, are photographed during the 1953 season.

Rest assured, however, that the scores, statistics and names that follow are truly accurate and did indeed occur at the time. High expectations would likely have been in the sultry 1953 mid-August air as the Bobcats gathered for the first day of practice at Hansen field, now the site of the Geisinger Medical Complex.

Coming off of a 5-3 season in 1952, the team was stacked with seasoned players on both sides of the ball. Coach Nelson Hoffman and able assistants Joe Danis and Tom Galitski embraced the run-heavy, single-wing offense as the perfect fit for the bevy of strong linemen and quick backs on the roster. The players referred to University of Illinois grad Hoffman as Nails for his stern discipline and organization on the field during practices and games.

In mythical fashion, Golumbic refers to the Bobcat front seven linemen as “The Seven Blocks of Granite,” an allusion to the 1936 Fordham line, known for being immovable by the position. The 1954 LHHS yearbook pictures Wes Maggs, Jack Roller, Tom Toner, Jack Houser, Wayne Englert, Dave Smith, Bill Karch and Jan Bennett, who were all part of that seven-man front at one time or another.

Per Golumbic, “Quite simply, the LHHS line of 1953 was legendary, both in performance and myth.”

Behind that purple and white line stood, arguably the greatest backfield in school history. With the veteran Dave Johnson at quarterback, Bill Goodman and Chub Schiavo at halfbacks, and John Englert at fullback, the Bobcats possessed the potential to move the ball at will on the ground. All four proved to be game breakers during the season. Tall and lanky split-end Jan Bennett added an extra dimension to the offense with his ability to leap high and receive Johnson’s passes.

PHOTO PROVIDED From left, Lock Haven running backs Chub Schiavo, Bill Goodman, Dave Johnson and John Englert pose for a photo during the 1953 football season.

The Bobcats recorded six shutouts during the season against State College, Jersey Shore, Huntingdon, Milton, Tyrone and Mount Union, with their other four victories at the expense of Bellefonte, South Williamsport, Lewistown and Williamsport. A perennially strong Lewistown squad gave the purple and white their stiffest challenge, with the Bobcats coming from behind late in the fourth quarter for a 25-19 victory. In the final game of the season, the Bobcats trekked down to Williamsport and knocked off the Millionaires, 20-6, the first time Lock Haven had beaten Williamsport in 27 years.

There were no playoffs at the time, so the team finished the season at 10-0, the first LHHS unbeaten season since 1924. They were crowned champions of both the Susquehanna and Central County leagues, as well as second place in the vaunted Western Conference.

The talent on the 1953 squad speaks for itself. Linemen Bill Karch and Tom Toner were selected to the all-state football team. Karch was subsequently recruited to play football at Florida State. Center Jack Houser was described by a Harrisburg sports journalist as perhaps “the very best high school center in the state, if not the entire nation.” Houser went on to play football at Florida State, and in his later years spent time on Bob Young’s coaching staff at Bucktail.

Bennett, an end, excelled on both unbeaten Bobcat football and basketball teams, and was described by the late coach Stan Daley as, “the best athlete I ever encountered, high school or college.” The basketball staff at Tennessee must have agreed with Daley, as the Vols offered Bennett a basketball scholarship.

The backfield was nothing short of explosive.

PHOTO PROVIDED From left, (front row) Lock Haven’s Wes Maggs, Jack Roller, Tom Toner, Jack Houser, Wayne Englert, Dave Smith, Jan Bennett and (back row) Chub Schiavo, Ken Miller, Bill Goodman, Dave Johnson, Wayne Englert Dave Smith and Jan Bennett pose for a photo during the 1953 season.

Schiavo was a speedster halfback, slipping through small holes and galloping for chunks of yards. The other halfback, Goodman, was big, strong and physical, often running over tacklers rather than running around them. Goodman led the team with 14 TDs during the season.

Fullback John Englert was multi-dimensional, as he was adept at running, passing and kicking the football. Englert tacked on 18 extra points throughout the season. He then attended at what was then Lock Haven State’s Teacher College and embarked on a long teaching and coaching career at LHHS.

By all accounts, the spark that ignited the Bobcat offense was quarterback Johnson. Highly intelligent and athletic, Johnson was the team’s unquestioned leader and a winner in every sense of the word. Named as an honorable mention all-state quarterback, Johnson went on to a career as a dental surgeon.

If the mountains surrounding Lock Haven could speak, they would undoubtedly hearken back to the memories of that long ago 1953 season at Spring Street Stadium. Memories of Friday nights as the Bobcat gridders would take the short walk from the high school, over the long-gone overhead bridge and gather at the entrance to Hansen Field.

Hoffman would likely deliver a few last words, always sending with “It’s time, let’s go!” Led by Johnson, the team would then enter the gates of the stadium, met by an overflowing sea of purple and white colors, a blaring band, and raucous cheers.

Legend has it that the echoes of that time still ring on brisk fall Lock Haven Friday nights. And so, it is past, and memories are what remain. But as author Golumbic believes, “Those memories have evolved into legend and myth, and will live on! It did happen; it happened indeed!”

I would be remiss if I failed to point out one additional happening during that magical season. In the ninth game of the season, the Bobcats defeated Captain Jack (Mount Union), 28-0. Captain Jack was coached by a young PSU graduate by the name of Don Malinak. In 1957, LHHS coach Hoffman hung up his coaching whistle and was replaced by none other than Malinak.

Interestingly, both had Steelton High connections — Hoffman was successful football coach there in the 1930s and Malinak a graduate of Steel High in 1950.

“The Boys of ’54” is available at the Ross Library. If you want a good read on a very good high school football team that roamed Spring Street Stadium in 1953, stop by and check it out.